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The ECOMOG Intervention and Human Rights INTRODUCTION Untitled Document Page 1 of 26 June 1993 Volume 5, Issue No. 6 LIBERIA Waging War to Keep the Peace: The ECOMOG Intervention and Human Rights TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. BACKGROUND TO THE INTERVENTION III. THE ECOMOG INTERVENTION IV. EVENTS IN 1992: EFFORTS AT PEACE V. THE RENEWED WAR: OPERATION OCTOPUS VI. THE ECOMOG RESPONSE ECOMOG Air Strikes Civilian Targets Violations of Medical Neutrality THE ARMED FORCES OF LIBERIA (AFL) Court Martials The Murder of Brian Garnham VII. THE ULIMO FACTOR VIII. THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) The United Nations The United States IX. ACCOUNTABILITY FOR PAST ABUSES X. RECOMMENDATIONS Recommendations to ECOMOG Recommendations to the United Nations Recommendations to the United States INTRODUCTION In an attempt to end the bloody civil war in Liberia, in August 1990, a group of West African nations under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)1 took the unprecedented step of sending a peacekeeping force into Monrovia. This force, known as the Economic Community Cease-Fire Monitoring Group, (ECOMOG), has now spent almost three years in Liberia, yet its goal of bringing peace to the country remains elusive. The ECOMOG intervention succeeded in temporarily stopping the bloodshed and ethnic killing, and is therefore regarded by many as a model of regional conflict resolution. However, ECOMOG has not integrated human rights protection and promotion into its activities, and this has proved to be a serious shortcoming. Pursuing peace without recognizing the centrality of human rights has left ECOMOG embroiled in a conflict with few immediate prospects for resolution: In the interests of ending the war and defeating a seemingly intractable adversary in Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), ECOMOG has allied itself with file://I:\TMPx26d5t8ui2.htm 02/17/2004 Untitled Document Page 2 of 26 other warring factions, which undermines its credibility and therefore its ability to bring peace. This report evaluates the ECOMOG intervention from a human rights standpoint, with particular emphasis on the period of renewed warfare since October 1992.2 It does not assess the human rights violations by all sides to the conflict, which has been done in previous Africa Watch publications;3 nevertheless, Africa Watch acknowledges that the human rights abuses and intransigent attitude of Charles Taylor's NPFL have constituted a serious obstacle to ECOMOG's efforts. The report concludes that: The ECOMOG intervention was carried out without clearly stated human rights principles and goals. Although not a part of ECOMOG's mandate, concrete human rights improvements resulted once ECOMOG secured control of Monrovia and its environs in autumn 1990, including a halt to the ethnic-based killings and brutality, the removal of obstacles to the delivery of relief supplies and the re-emergence of civil society. Since the NPFL attack on Monrovia in October 1992, ECOMOG has unofficially aligned itself with two of the warring factions, the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) and the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO), which are themselves responsible for serious human rights abuses. This has raised questions about ECOMOG's commitment to human rights as well as its ability to act as a neutral arbiter of the conflict. ECOMOG has not sought adequately to control the abusive behavior of the forces with which it is nominally allied, or to investigate cases of human rights abuses committed by these forces, including killings, beatings, systematic looting and harassment of civilians. There have been many reports about ECOMOG involvement in looting and occasional harassment or detention of civilians, although ECOMOG has not been responsible for systematic human rights abuses in the territory it controls. However, there is serious concern about the civilian toll and violations of medical neutrality by ECOMOG's air strikes in NPFL territory. There is no indication that ECOMOG has conducted investigations into these incidents. None of the ECOWAS-sponsored peace talks included human rights on the agenda, thus making the West African countries complicit in the absence of any discussion of human rights protections or accountability for past abuses. Since the issue of accountability for past abuses was never raised by ECOMOG, ECOWAS or the UN, those responsible for gross human rights abuses on all sides to the conflict continue to operate with impunity. * * * The ECOMOG intervention can be separated into three phases: from August to November 1990, the initial intervention that led to a cease-fire; from November 1990 to October 1992, the fragile truce; and from October 1992 to the present, the renewed war. Since the November 1990 cease-fire, Liberia has been a divided country, with the Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU) governing Monrovia and its environs, backed by ECOMOG, while the NPFL controlled approximately 90 percent of the country. This situation lasted until late August 1992, when ULIMO, another rebel group formed primarily by soldiers from former President Samuel Doe's army, the AFL, attacked the NPFL from neighboring Sierra Leone, and captured two western counties, Bomi and Grand Cape Mount. However, the situation changed dramatically on October 15, 1992, when the NPFL attacked Monrovia, ending two years of an uneasy peace and plunging the country back into war. Having failed to enforce a peaceful solution to the crisis, ECOMOG has been dragged back into the war, and is considered by many to constitute a warring faction. Its role has changed from peacekeeping to peace enforcing, and its rules of engagement now are more aggressive -- they not only can use force if they feel threatened and are empowered to disarm the warring factions, but they can also attack targets that might contribute to a threat against them. According to ECOMOG Field Commander Maj. General Adetunji Olurin, a peacekeeping force is supposed to act as an "impartial arbiter." However, he explained that they were compelled to change their role into "peace enforcement." file://I:\TMPx26d5t8ui2.htm 02/17/2004 Untitled Document Page 3 of 26 If a faction decides to take us on and challenge the peacekeepers, then the enforcement role comes in. We must make all factions comply with the collective wisdom of others -- ECOWAS, the OAU or the UN. One faction cannot be an obstacle to peace. Then, we will return to our peacekeeping posture.4 This new role is substantially different from that of a peacekeeper, since it involves aggressive, military operations directed against only one of the parties to the conflict. ECOMOG's actions raise serious questions about the role of a peacekeeping force, and whether its offensive will preclude it from returning to its prior peacekeeping functions. The only lasting solution to the Liberian crisis will have to be political, based on respect for human rights; the crisis cannot be solved militarily. Since the beginning of the conflict, ECOMOG and ECOWAS have avoided inserting human rights into the peace negotiations, ostensibly for fear of derailing the process; peace, therefore, has been separated from human rights. This is underscored by the alliance ECOMOG has formed since October 1992 with two other Liberian factions -- ULIMO and the AFL -- whose human rights records range from suspect to abysmal. This, in turn, raises questions about ECOMOG's commitment to human rights, and about the role that human rights should play in the peace process. ECOMOG supporters maintain that human rights forms the foundation of the peace process, and that explicit human rights concerns will be addressed once a peace agreement is in place. The president of the Interim Government, Amos Sawyer, put it this way: Human rights is imbedded in the peace process; it is the essence of the democratic process....But the first step had to be to stop the fighting -- to find out what Taylor wanted, to see how to make concessions to get him to stop fighting, and to convince him to bring his claims to the political process. It didn't work, but the basic principle remains disarmament, encampment and elections. Human rights will then fall in line.5 There is little reason to believe that human rights guarantees will be integrated into the peace process, at least not at the initiative of ECOWAS. From November 1990 until October 1992, the two years of the fragile truce, the West African leaders and the international community had ample opportunity to raise human rights issues, including protection for the civilian population and accountability for past human rights abuses. Instead, they have created a situation in which the ultimate political solution will be linked to avoiding accountability on all sides, thus perpetuating the atmosphere of impunity which has plagued Liberia for so long. Accordingly, the ECOWAS leaders, with ECOMOG as their instrument, are contributing to the continuing human rights abuses in Liberia. That there is no human rights component to the Yamoussoukro IV accord,6 the October 1991 ECOWAS-sponsored peace agreement, is the fault of the ECOWAS leaders. As one Liberian human rights activist noted: No one pushed for human rights at the peace conference. It wasn't on the government's agenda, and in their own [ECOWAS] countries, human rights weren't respected either. To end the war, we have to go beyond disarming the people. We need to create an organ to focus on human rights. The government needs to undertake human rights guarantees, to investigate violations.7 In fact, human rights was never an explicit part of the ECOMOG mission. The ECOMOG Chief of Staff, Brig. Malu, told Africa Watch that ECOMOG's job was to "enforce disarmament and encampment and, with the U.N., to supervise elections. When a government is in place, we have fully achieved our mission." "Human rights," he continued, "is not a mission for a military service.
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